On April 1st we went on an all day excursion and went to several awesome sites. First was the Archeological Museum in Nikopoli, which had a ton of ruin from the Roman period when the city was at its peak. This is where Octavius defeated Antony and Cleopatra, so they called the place 'Victory City' or Nikopolis in Greek. The museum was full of statues of emperors and gods, clay pots, coins, and tablets, but the coolest part was the section of sarcophagi, which was one of the main exports of the area. Walking around the huge sarcophagi was kind of creepy, but treatment and fascination with the dead was really important to the ancient Greeks, which has to do with the next place we went to on the excursion.
Next up was the Nekromanteion, the supposed location of the Gates of the Underworld. Luckily it was a sunny, beautiful day in paradise over here, or else this excursion would have been super creepy. The Greeks believed that at this entrance to Hades one could communicate with the dead. So people would travel to the temple, get drugged by the priests as to be in a state to communicate with the spirits and then hopefully talk with their dead loved ones. Kind of crazy, right? However the purpose of the conversation was usually not to catch up with the dead person, but rather to try and discern a prophet from them as it was believed that the dead could tell the future. The temple above the actual underground entrance area has been worn down over the years, just fragments of walls with no ceilings remaining. Entering the actual underground temple wasn’t all that exciting, since it was just a set of metal stairs leading into the ground, but the room was pretty cool. I felt like Indiana Jones was going to storm in and find some secret passage way or something. It was pretty dark down there, but the flash on my camera obviously takes that away from the image.
After that we headed to Preveza to have lunch, which was amazing! The lunches on the Friday excursions are prepaid for as part of the program and so far they have been delicious. I look forward to them all week long :) We ate at a restaurant on the edge of this cliff on the sea and we were the only people there too. The view reminded me of Hawaii so much. We had fresh bread, an appetizer plate, Greek salad, and juicy hunk of chicken with potatoes. They really like their potatoes over here, since it’s pretty much served with any dish. You even get french fries in gyros, which I love! After that we just spent the afternoon in the beautiful beach town Parga. I put my feet in the Ionian Sea, which was kind of cold, but definitely warmer than the Puget Sound would be right now J We just wondered along the beach and through the town, which was pretty empty, but that was during siesta. Pretty much everything shuts down here from 2-5pm for people to rest! We did find one souvenir shop that was open and I had a good long conversation with the owner entirely in Greek, which was exciting and fun. During the couple hour bus ride back to the university most people just fall asleep, but I’ve been trying to stay awake on the rides to see as much of this beautiful country as I can.
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